Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Antonio Marques for his help in accessing Portuguese sources relating to Richard III’s marriage projects of 1485, and also my fellow student at the University of Essex, Carolina Barbara, for checking my translations of the Portuguese texts which I have published. I am most grateful to the staff of the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office and to the staff of the Leicester Museum Service for their assistance, and I also owe many thanks to Sally Henshaw (Secretary of the Richard III Society East Midlands Branch) for her help in tracking down Thomas Clarke, mayor of Leicester, and in pursuing rumours of Richard III’s bed. I should also like to thank Marie Barnfield, Annette Carson, Dr Mike Jones and Lynda Pidgeon for reading draft versions of my text (or parts of it) and providing very valuable comments and advice. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Lindsey Smith, my current editor, and to all the team at The History Press, for all their help and encouragement in bringing to completion this new and updated second edition of The Last Days of Richard III. Finally I should like to thank the late Joy Ibsen and her family, Richard Mackinder (operations manager, Bosworth Battlefield Centre), Eddie Smallwood (Bosworth Battlefield guide), Philippa Langley, and all my colleagues in the Leicester University ‘Search for Richard III’ team. As usual, Annette Carson and Dave Perry have helped me to avoid the more obvious typographical errors. Any mistakes which remain, are, of course, my responsibility!